Disneyland 2011: Privations and Pratfalls

We had a wonderful, fabulous time at Disneyland. And I'll write a more detailed trip report than anyone wants to read. But our misadventures make a funnier tale.

T-3: One child develops a fever.

T-2: Paul gets called out of town on a last minute business trip right before our vacation. By leaving his meeting early he can get home at 11:00 PM the night before our trip. We leave the house at 4:30 the next morning. Yes, 5 hours after he returns home. This sucks because, a) he's exhausted, and b) I need to do a great deal of the packing and preparing by myself with the "assistance" of three small children.

T-1: I try on the custom-designed shirt we've ordered for each of us (yes, we are a family who matches clothes each day at Disney. why not?) only to find that - lo and behold - it's shrunk at least two sizes after its custom dye job. Everyone else's white shirt is fine, but mine is thin, skin-tight, and the Mickey ears form an unfortunate ring-around-the-breasts design. So . . . I drag two children - one still with fever - out to shop for another shirt to go under the disaster shirt, figuring that if I layer 3 shirts together I can make myself into a featureless sausage casing, in this case a preferable alternative. (It works, more or less.)


Trip Day 1: "Ma'am, that beeping sound means that you've been randomly selected for additional screening." I pride myself on making it through security without slowing down the line at all, no matter how many electronic devices or small children might be in my party. Today is no exception, except that Teddy and I are "randomly selected for additional screening" on this trip - in both directions! The helpful TSA lady brings me my bin after my infant and I are cleared . . . and somehow I become permanently separated from my clear plastic baggie of lotions, medical ointments, sunscreens, etc. I don't realize the oversight until we're in the air.

Trip Day 2: Safe! While waiting in line for a map I notice Paul and the children greeting Mickey Mouse. Hooray! I skip the line and sprint across rain-splattered asphalt to rejoin my family for photographs. Oops! Slick spot. I slide LOUDLY into a metal trashcan as though I'm stealing home. Over a week later, my knee still hurts a bit. My pride has recovered somewhat.


Trip Day 3: Please don't call child protective services. Ada's on-again/off-again fever strikes and she falls asleep in the stroller. Ellie really wants to paddle canoes.(Did you know that you can do this at Disneyland? Win!) So I find a shady spot alongside a wall, Paul parks the stroller with Ada inside it, and I hop up on the wall and cover up modestly to feed the baby and let him nap on my lap. After a quiet, relaxing interval, Paul and Ellie return. Paul brushes past the stroller, whose brakes are apparently not engaged, and . . . the stroller rolls across the slanted walk and crashes into the landscaping 10 feet away. Ada (not seat-belted) tumbles out into a bush, wakes abruptly, and begins crying. We discuss the episode later that afternoon. She thinks I'm kidding and has no memory of the fall whatsoever. Whew. "That would be scary," she says.


Trip Day 4: We wake early. Eat granola bars in our hotel room and pack without incident. We check out well ahead of schedule and try (for the second time this trip) to find our way to the beach with GPS or a detailed map. (Head west! Water must be here somewhere!) We travel on deserted highways and stumble upon a Starbucks immediately before finding beautiful, deserted Newport Beach. We watch the sun rise over the water for a bit, then head to the airport. We return the rental minivan, navigate security, and arrive at our gate, still ahead of schedule. Nothing goes wrong! Uneventful trip and a perfect travel day. The only weirdness is that somehow we watched sunrise over the ocean in California.

Stay...cation

Glorious world, fall weather is here! Now I'm waiting for the return of the pumpkin spice latte and my joy will be complete. Especially because I just found the Starbucks gift card my in-laws gave me for Christmas. It was tucked inside the wrapper of some new SmartWool socks that I haven't needed for several months.

"Mommy, remember when we went to Wyoming? And Indiana? And to the cabin? And stayed at home?"

This is Ellie, recapping our summer vacations. I had a great time visiting my parents and Paul's, at a family reunion in Brown County, Indiana, in Chicago, and indeed all summer long. But this weekend might have been the best vacation of all, not least because I got to shower in my own shower and sleep in my own bed. It's a blast being a tourist in my own town.

Festivities started on Thursday evening when the girls got haircuts at The Hairy Elephant. This is a real treat. The waiting room is filled with cool toys and books. They get to select their own flavored shampoos from colorful pump bottles. Then they lie on a bench while the stylist washes their hair with a long, gray trunk attached to an elephant head on the wall. How cool is this? With clean, wet hair the girls select a video and a seat. This week Ada chose Lightening McQueen and Ellie a white golf cart. The stylists - experts with kids including children with special needs - make the cut fun and follow it up by allowing the girls to choose plastic clips for their hair, then stickers and suckers. We picked up cupcakes for dessert on the way home.

Friday morning Teddy and I went to our weekly play group while Paul and the girls went on their first horseback trail ride. Ellie got to ride all by herself! Ada decided that instead of gymnastics she'd rather take riding lessons this fall. (Nope, sorry.) We met for lunch afterward then had a quiet afternoon and evening at home (Friday night pizza and a movie).

Saturday morning, one of hottest days of the summer so far, we went to Six Flags. We rode the Ferris wheel as a warm up, then the girls begged to be allowed to go on what looks to me like the most terrifying ride in the park (Pandemonium) a roller coaster that spins in 360's as it moves along the tracks. It was, apparently, fun, though Ellie does not want to repeat the experience. It was so very hot. After lunch we discovered the water rides, and much fun was had by all.


Sunday was all about the bikes. The girls and Paul rode our tandem trail-a-bike to church - I'm told this is very hard work for the lead biker - and they loved doing that. After Teddy's nap we drove downtown to the Gateway Arch and did the most touristy activities imaginable: quadracycle and carriage rides. Then spaghetti, Ted Drewes, and home.


Today was a BBQ at home with family and then one last trip to the pool for the season. Perfect weekend.

Since he comes everywhere with me, I should mention my third child. Teddy was a great sport being carted hither and yon and stuck outside in ridiculously hot weather. But he exacted his revenge in the middle of the night by not sleeping much this weekend.

Bring on Tuesday!

July

Now that we've got temperatures over 100 degrees, again, I figure it's time to give a photo review of our July.

Cooling off in Lake Michigan, at my parents' house, and at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago:
(Teddy was only 3 months old!)

Nature drives (rather than walks, this summer):


Swimming lessons, slip 'n' slide, park:


And a baptism, but that deserves a post of its own.

I've had babies in the winter, before, and have felt a little trapped in my house by the weather. Having this baby in the spring would have been perfect except for the fact that this summer was hot and we spent a fair amount of time trapped inside the house by the weather! I'm not complaining too much, though. After all, it's September, glorious September, and crisp fall weather is right around the corner.

On the Move

I don't like to post that we're going out of town before we leave, since that seems to me like an invitation to come over and eat all our dog food.

But now that we're safely at home I'd like to share that so far this month we've been to Wyoming - for Paul's parents' retirement party - and Indiana - for a gathering with my family.

Teddy and I flew to Wyoming while Paul and the girls drove out with Paul's sister, her husband, and their turning-4-year-old. The car wouldn't quite carry all 8 of us (including 4 car seats) so we figured we'd save the two-month-old the trauma of a 1000 mile road trip. It was a lovely weekend with 23 of Paul's family members and 100+ of their closest friends(!). Congrats to my in-laws!

Ellie flew back with Teddy and me so that she wouldn't miss the first day of summer school. Teddy and Ada and I spent the rest of the week at Vacation Bible Camp. Last week we had a few days of "down time" for playdates, a birthday party, a creek stomp, more summer school, and a dance recital. Then we struck out on another trip.

This weekend we drove to Brown County, Indiana, for my family's annual summer getaway. (We usually go to the beach in South Haven, Michigan.) We stayed in this amazing "log cabin." Amazingly, we all fit: in the great room, around the massive dining table, and in the 5 bedrooms. Each bedroom had its own en suite bathroom. This is the way to keep families close-but-not-too-close. By "my family" I mean my parents, my two sisters, our three husbands, and all the grandkids. The current tally is 7 children ages 7 and younger, three of whom are infants.

All this just to say:

I'm from Indiana and a proud Hoosier. Woo hoo!

But I went to college in Missouri and have lived here ever since. Woo hoo!

And what people from Indiana might or might not know is that people from Missouri use "Hoosier" as a derogative term meaning "white trash" or "trailer trash" or "tacky/classless/insert other offensive term here." It's so common I think many Missourians don't even realize that "Hoosier" refers to people from Indiana, let alone that we consider the name something to be proud of.

As we drove east along Interstate 70 we came to a (apparently non-ironic) sign that read, "Hoosier Country Club." It sat in front of a trailer park. I wish we'd stopped to take a picture.

Instead:

Ada's Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Ada turned four. It's no big deal that I didn't mention it at the time; you haven't missed the party. She's still celebrating! In fact, she preemptively walks around holding up four fingers in hopes that someone will ask about her age. But we did celebrate her birthday in grand style, with a trip to a Very Special Destination.

Shortly before Christmas I decided that I deserved a treat so after a busy morning of running errands I skipped lunch and drove Ada and myself over to the county library headquarters (not our usual branch) to pick up a Richard K. Morgan novel.

As we entered the main building, Ada immediately peeled off to head for the children's section. I trailed at a respectful distance, curious about what she was seeking. Would she go straight for the picture books sitting at the child-sized reading tables? Would the large stuffed animals draw her interest? When did they remove the cool play structure?

My daughter headed straight for nonfiction, then turned to catch my eye and said, "Mommy, I can't find the books about dinosaurs." Actually, she was standing in the right place, just looking one shelf too high. I directed her attention to the correct area, then headed for the back room where St. Louis County Library sequesters its science fiction.

I grabbed my novel and strode back out into the main room, meeting Ada near the circulation desk so we could both present our choices to the librarian. Adelaide chose A Dinosaur Named Sue about explorer Sue Hendrickson's discovery of the world's largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossilized skeleton in South Dakota, the restoration of the fossil, and its acquisition by The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. We read that book over and over. Once she realized that Grandma and Grandpa live not too far away and a visit to see Sue was a possibility, her birthday plans were set.

(My younger sister had a daughter the day after Ada was born and we frequently hold a joint birthday celebration at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Fortunately, my niece was willing to go along with Ada's idea. She was a dinosaur for Halloween this year.)

So. Friday of the weekend of Ada's birthday we caravanned up to my parents' house with Paul's sister, her husband, and their three-year-old daughter. We met my parents and my sister's family there, then all took the train into Chicago on Saturday morning. Saturday evening was the family birthday party. Sunday we returned home.

And if you give Ada the slightest opening, she'll tell you all about Sue the T-Rex.


Ada pretending to be afraid of Sue's head. (She was afraid of the balcony but not the dinosaur. Apparently Ada's in a fear-of-heights stage.)

Ada's picture of a pteranodon - taken well back from the edge of the scary balcony.

Ada in front of the Chicago skyline from the museum restaurant.

With souvenir Sue, waiting for the train back.

All five girls (including the three not celebrating birthdays) received pillow pets and this was another huge highlight. Ada had been coveting the purple unicorn pillow pet for weeks.

That's my kid. Penguins, dinosaurs, and orcas (nonfiction!) but also: My Little Pony and unicorns (pure fantasy). This is the stuff childhood is made of.

Cinema

Since television has been on hiatus since before Thanksgiving, and since I'm dealing with a case of post-holiday malaise (or at least ennui) I've been watching movies.

In the first three nights of 2011 Paul and I watched:

1. Spellbound (documentary about the National Spelling Bee)
2. Outsourced (indie comedy about a guy sent to India to train his replacement)
3. Twilight (yes, that Twilight).

Here's how I sold it to Paul. 

Look, there were some things about the book that weren't so great.  But I bet they don't plague the movie nearly as much.  Here's the premise: it's set on the Olympic peninsula (which we love) in and near towns we've visited.  There are lots of scenes hiking in the woods, up the mountains, and on the beach.  (I've already piqued his interest.) 

There's a "family" of vampires living there, and since they choose to hunt animals rather than people they can stick around in one place for longer without attracting uncomfortable notice.  The "father" is a doctor and the five "kids" are in high school.  When it becomes obvious that they're not aging normally, they'll move somewhere else where it's cloudy most of the year and start over as high school students again.

There's also an Indian reservation nearby and according to tribal legend they're descended from wolves and are ancient enemies with the vampires so there's some territorialism going on in addition to the rest of the vampires trying to pass as humans stuff.  (It turns out that it wasn't the details here that caught Paul's attention, but rather the simple fact that there is any back story at all, something other than a flaky teen love story about romanticized vampires.)

Three big criticisms of the book are: vampires, teens, and bad writing/flat characters.  The first two aren't really problems for us.  (Hello, Buffy!) and the third was probably addressed by the screenwriter.  Simply by virtue of having faces, the characters will be more real than in the book.  We'll know what Edward looks like, not just that he's "perfect."  Bella will most likely have some personality and actually interact with the world around her.  And, best of all, there will be far less repetition than in the novel.

(He was actually interested in watching the movie at this point and voluntarily sat down on the couch without his laptop.)

Paul's comments: it wasn't bad.  There was a lot of teen angst, not very much happened, and it needed a lot more editing.  Some of the scenes really dragged and I didn't like the decision to have a narrator.  But the premise was pretty good and interesting. If it hadn't been All About Bella, it could have been a good fantasy series.

My thoughts: Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  Also, the movie was structured better than the book.  Almost from the very beginning we're aware of a foreign threat in town, killing people.  In the novel, we meet the main antagonists, what, 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through?  They fixed that plotting problem for the movie.  The book was much more stream of consciousness/flow of the school year/life experienced along with the main character.  The movie had a narrative arc and seemed, well, plotted.

As a writer it was fun to look at the differences between the book (to which I listened on iPod during a road trip) and the movie, to try to pick out what worked, what didn't, and why.

I can't say that I'm now a Twilight fan.  For a good teen love story, show me Juno any time!  But I did add New Moon and Eclipse to my Netflix queue.

One at a Time, Please!

Ada and I just returned from a few days visiting my sister, her husband, and their newborn twins.


I asked Ada to take a picture of me as I walked around the house holding the babies (my sister was getting a rare moment of sleep). Ada took pictures of nearly everything else in the house before snapping one of the least flattering pictures ever taken of me. Alas. But despite my collection of chins, I trust the sheer joy I felt while snuggling my newest niece and nephew shines through.



Other highlights of the trip (for Ada) included the giant hotel bed and a trip out for ice cream.



The babies are doing great. And I keep reassuring my sister that they will start to sleep eventually. One of them has already broken the 6 pound barrier, and once they get a little bigger they'll be able to go longer between feedings!

Less Globe Trotting, More Home Making

I didn't have the weekend I planned for. My youngest sister had twins a couple of weeks ago and I've been longing to meet them. So I washed the car and filled it with gas. I sorted baby clothes into two stacks: "Ellie and Ada's clothes their little brother could wear," and "This really might be better for my new niece." Paul washed the clothes and I stacked them up with a few other "gifts" and books to return.

I checked the weather forecasts and put together a list of fun things to do with kids in my sister's hometown. I selected a bag of "trip food" and prepped the girls on new baby etiquette. Surely we were all ready to go!

Then Ada threw up. And Paul's cold didn't go away as expected. In fact, Ellie started smearing snot around her own face, too, dadgummit. And my sister - new mom to not-quite-5-pound-babies - worried (naturally!) that I might be incubating something less than wholesome myself.

As it turns out, I'm still well. But it's good that we didn't make the trip anyway, even though I'm finding it nearly physically painful that I haven't been there yet!

Since no one but me was 100% well and we had already cleared our schedule, we had a wide open weekend ahead of us. We did leave the house a few times - no one was sick enough for quarantine once the magical 24 hours had passed from Ada's digestive distress - but mostly we stayed home.

I ruthlessly culled the girls' rooms of large and non-essential toys, relegating most of their stuff to the basement playroom. I already replaced the usual residents of my drawers, shelves, and hangers with seasonally appropriate (if too large) maternity gear. Now I just need need to dust everywhere and then it's time to have the carpet cleaners over for a long overdue visit.

And after that - bunk bed time! Fortunately, the girls are excited about becoming roommates soon.

What I've Been Up To

Family photo:


Apple picking:


And all church family camp (with running water and heated cabins):

 

(Both good photos of Paul, the girls, and me courtesy of brother-in-law Rob!)

Family Photo

Little One wouldn't smile at the camera for anything; this was the best take - of 10 - and it looks like I'm biting her head.

Wyoming - Part I

We all spent a couple of days at Paul's parents' house, then Paul and I disappeared for a couple of days on our own. We returned this afternoon for a couple more days here all together before we head back east. Or, rather, to the Midwest.

Wyoming is a state that produces coal, oil, and natural gas. But on our little side trip Paul and I saw large wind farms, a few hydroelectric dams, and some solar panels. It turns out that geothermal is an possibility here, too.

We stayed in Saratoga and drove through the Medicine Bow National Forest, pausing to hike a couple trails. At the end of the Lakes trail I added a little bit of the trek to Medicine Bow Peak in the Snowy Range but Paul made it much farther - probably to the summit itself.

It wasn't the altitude (my lungs, my legs) that did me in. It was more a combination of: the lack of visible path, loose rock to climb over, smooth snow face to cross, knowledge that every foot I climbed up I'd have to climb back down, and a complete lack of conviction for why I should put myself through all that in the first place. Besides, I was equipped for an "easy hike" with running shoes, khaki shorts, and a t-shirt. No water, no climbing gear, no experience.

Where I stood on top of a boulder over-looking a series of crystal clear lakes stair-stepping down in altitude below me, the view was incredible. I was content.

Soaking my feet in the hot springs later that night soothed both my physical reminders of the hike and my emotional distress over a day of sliding around hairpin turns up and down mountains on a single track dirt road. As the passenger.

Wyoming Highway 130, a paved "Scenic Byway," crosses Medicine Bow National Forest but is only open from late spring or early summer until October. Sometimes the road opens for the season in JULY. We saw lots of snow along the road in addition to at higher reaches on our hike but were quite comfortable in our summer attire. All road markers, signs, and reflectors were topped by tall sticks to mark the way for snow plows.

On our way back through the forest we decided to take a less well-traveled dirt road. We made it safely, and that's about enough said about the trip. More later.

Note: I'm in the first photo and took the second. (Look for my blue shirt.) Paul took the first photo about halfway back to the car park along the Lakes trail. I took the second photo after scrambling back down from Medicine Bow Summit, in the pass between Medicine Bow and SugarLoaf peaks.

In-Laws Reunion

Last weekend we traveled to Iowa with Paul's family (his parents, his sister, her husband, and their three-year-old) to stay with extended family for an annual reunion weekend.

While away from wireless coverage we slept in a camper. A really, really nice camper. The camper was so roomy the girls got lonely and wanted to snuggle with Mommy at bedtime.



There were a couple dozen of us there but what made the trip, as always, was quality time with cousins:



Well, that and the food!